►
From YouTube: State of Remote Work Discussion - GitLab CEO (Sid Sijbrandij) and Head of Remote (Darren M.)
Description
@GitLab CEO and co-founder Sid Sijbrandij sits down with Head of Remote Darren Murph for a bi-monthly 'State of Remote Work' call. They discuss industry trends, remote transformations, cultural implications, and GitLab's position/work in the space.
Topics discussed include:
1) Remote as a competitive hiring advantage
2) Compensation philosophy
3) GitLab culture
4) Advocating for remote
5) Remote tools
For more, please see below.
- How to Manage a Remote Team course on @Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/learn/remote-team-management
- GitLab's Remote Playbook: https://learn.gitlab.com/suddenlyremote
- GitLab's all-remote handbook and associated learning guides: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/
A
Date
of
remote
work:
this
is
a
new
bi-monthly
call
between
myself,
melissa
and
sid
in
the
pandemic
era.
Remote
work
is
accelerating
at
a
rapid
pace
and
we
just
wanted
to
put
something
on
the
calendar
to
talk
about
things
that
I'm
seeing
as
I
meet
with
leaders,
executives,
academics
across
the
university
space
in
various
panels
and
webinars,
a
lot
of
things
are
happening.
A
lot
of
companies
are
figuring
things
out
in
real
time.
A
All
remote
is
core
to
who
get
lab
is
I
want
to
make
sure
that
I'm
sharing
that
with
a
as
many
people
as
possible
within
the
organization,
but
also
getting
sid's
perspective
in
meetings
that
he
is
in,
so
I
am
taking
into
account
what
he's
seeing
in
the
communications
that
I
engage
in
melissa.
Anything
to
add
on
that
was
that
a
good
intro.
A
I
think
that
was
a
great
intro
awesome
so
for
context.
Sid,
you
have
the
agenda
doc.
Here,
I'm
not
going
to
rehash
everything
because
you
can
read
it
asynchronously
I
put
at
the
end,
if
there's
anything
on
your
mind,
but
really
what
I
want
to
do
is
go
over
some
of
the
hot
topics
that
I've
seen
come
in
and
allow
you
to
provide
feedback
on
any
of
that
as
we
go
so
the
first
one
I've
got
here
is
remote
as
a
competitive,
hiring
advantage.
A
So
a
couple
of
things
that
I'm
I'm
seeing
hybrid
remote
isn't
as
good
as
all
remote,
but
I
do
think
we
should
be
aware
that
for
some,
especially
for
smaller
companies,
it
might
be
good
enough.
So
all
remote
has
a
competitive
hiring
advantage.
We
should
keep
that
in
mind
that,
in
essence,
we'll
have
more
competition
for
people
that
place
a
high
degree
of
value
on
remote,
who
don't
fully
delineate
between
all
remote
and
hybrid
and
combined
with
that.
I
think
hybrid
remote
may
improve
now
that
companies
are
being
more
intentional
about
it.
A
There's
this
shift
between
allowing
remote
and
supporting
remote,
and
I
think
some
companies
are
going
to
invest
heavily
in
making
hybrid
as
good
as
it
can
be.
So
the
the
baseline
for
hybrid
may
or
the
floor
for
hybrid
may
rise.
So
I
had
a
question
there
on.
If
you
broadly
agree
with
that
or
not
or
have
any
feedback.
A
Yeah,
I
agree
with
that
and
one
other
thing
that
I
wanted
to
touch
on
here.
More
broadly,
I
feel
like
especially
at
gitlab.
All
remote
and
talent
branding
are
they've
always
been
infused,
but
now
kind
of
more
than
ever,
and
one
thing
that
I
wanted
to
highlight
is
from
a
talent
brand
standpoint.
I
do
think
get
lab
as
well
as
other
all.
Remote
companies
will
have
increased
competition
for
for,
like
best
dove
awards
from
remote,
first
or
hybrid
companies
that
now
can
inject
themselves
into
those
competit
or
yeah
competitions
with
big
pr
firms.
A
A
B
A
Melissa,
I
love
that
from
a
comms
perspective
where
we
could.
I
think
this
gives
us
permission
to
be
more
bold
in
pitching
media
organizations
on
a
culture
category
or
something
of
that
something
in
that
vein,
even
if
they
haven't
hosted
that
before
they
there's
no
way
they
missed
the
remote
memo
over
the
past
six
or
seven
months,
and
so
we
may
be
the
first
ones
to
mention
it
to
them
and
expanding
their
usual
scope,
and
we
may
get
a
first
mover
advantage
and
being
the
first
one
to
mention
it
to
them.
A
B
A
Cool
second
major
point
here
is
on
compensation
philosophy.
We
do
have
a
few
public
issues
in
epics
that
are
soliciting
feedback
from
get
lab
team
members
as
well
as
those
outside
and
looking
at
that.
But
I
just
wanted
to
note
that
this
is
moving
so
fast
and
I
do
think
that
the
market
will
sort
it
out,
but
I
think
I
either
I
either
read
or
from
you
or
saw
from
you
that
we
don't
necessarily
want
to
be
far
ahead
of
or
far
behind
any
of
these
big
changes.
B
Look,
we
should
pay
market
and
we
should
be
ahead
of
market.
We
shouldn't
be
behind
market
and
it's
changing.
I'm
watching
our
exit
interviews
like
a
hawk.
There
seemed
to
be
some
bifurcation
there,
where
there's
more
people
who
got
the
same
compensation
who
didn't
increase,
but
there's
also
more
people
that
got
much
higher
like
40,
plus
salary
increases,
and
that's
that's
interesting
like
are
there
some
companies
who
are
doing
the
same
pay
worldwide
or
kind
of
the
same
pay?
B
B
I
don't
want
to
say,
target
a
place
place
to
find
great
people
from
and
having
said
that,
I
think
we're
still
at
88
percent
year-over-year
retention,
which
is
like
double
the
industry
average.
So
we're
doing
well,
but
we
should
watch
those
metrics
and
actually
I
just
can't
discuss
with
eric
johnson
in
engineering
to
brief
brittany
who
does
compensation
on
like
hey.
Let's
make
sure
we
have
that
the
data
flowing
and-
and
we
won't,
we
won't
be
slow
to
to
take
action.
B
B
If
there's
only
a
10
pay
gap
like
it's
hard
to
explain
to
the
people
who
stay
in
san
francisco
that
the
person
who
moved
to
costa
rica
is
getting
90
of
their
pay.
So
I
think
there's
going
to
be
some
reckoning
in
that
market
and
that
it
it's
not
as
simple
as
they
thought
and
that
they'll
have
to
go
to
local
pay,
but
we'll
see
what
goes
faster.
This
is
in
the
end
we
do
market,
it's
not
like.
Oh
the
other
companies
have
to
act
rational
before
we
do
something.
No
market
is
market.
A
Yeah,
I
agree
with
that
good
insights.
One
thing
that
I
did
consider
is:
if
enough
people
exit
us
from
san
francisco
to
sacramento,
for
example,
does
the
floor
in
sacramento
raise
so
fast
that
it
adjusts
that
you
almost
have
to
adjust
it
like
it?
Let
me
use
boise,
maybe
as
a
better
example.
If
enough
bay
area
people
move
to
boise,
it
might
not
be
a
low
cost
alternative
to
sf,
but
simply
a
higher
quality
of
life
alternative
to
sf,
so
it
will
become
more
expensive
to
live
there.
A
A
Yeah,
that's
a
good
point
question
on
the
exit
interview.
If
you
can't
answer
this
in
public,
that's
okay,
I'm
curious!
If
we
dig
into
whether
all
remote
or
hybrid,
remote
or
co-located
plays
into
this,
and
the
deeper
question
is,
would
you
said
40
some
people
were
getting
a
40
pay
raise?
Would
that
40
percent
be
enough
it
to
over
to
compensate
from
going
to
well
oiled
all
remote
to
we're
just
figuring
out
hybrid
or
does
that
not
get
tied
together
in
the
exit
interview,
yeah.
B
I
want
to
reiterate
we're
talking
about
very
few
people
leaving
and
then
of
those
people
leaving
the
big
increases
is
only
a
subset
and
it's
just
something
we
watch
very
carefully.
I
think
look
40
extra
pay
I'd
be
able
to
deal
with
some
some
dysfunction
at
the
new
company,
so
we
shouldn't
we
shouldn't.
B
I
think
we
should
just
pay
market.
We
shouldn't
say
like
oh
we're,
better
company
to
work
for
that's
all
great.
We
pay
market
plus
we're
a
better
company
to
work
for
it's
not
that
we
we
get
away
with
paying
less
than
market.
We
want
to
pay
at
market
and
and
then
want
to
be
a
very
attractive
employer.
On
top
of
that,.
A
A
A
That
may
have
been
this
a
different
way
for
the
past
x
amount
of
years
that
are
changing.
I've
found
that
people
generally
are
more
receptive
to
the
change.
If
you
give
them
a
heads
up,
that
is
changing
because
of
x.
I
don't
know
if
that
is
something
that
feels
useful
to
you
or
you
disagree
with
it.
But
it's
something
that
I'm
trying
to
be
mindful
of.
B
Yeah
for
sure
it's
definitely
it's
gonna
be
interesting
to
try
to
preserve
our
values
as
we
become
a
public
company.
I
think
it's
possible
everywhere.
I
looked
it's
a
solve
solvable
problem,
but
we'll
be
the
first
company
to
solve
it,
we'll
be
the
first
company
to
have
5
000
pages
of
internal
process
instead
of
a
100
pages,
we'll
be
the
first
company
to
to
do
iteration
and
have
a
low
level
of
shame.
B
Instead
of
finishing
everything
completely
before
we
ship
it
or
we
finish
things,
but
we
ship
very
small
iterations
which
are
missing
some
functionality
that
you'd
expect.
I
think
we
can
do
it.
It's
going
to
be
an
interesting
process.
I
agree.
Communication
is
key.
I
think
we'll
keep
our
values
and
I
think,
they'll
be
more
pronounced
because
now
we're
a
public
company
that
still
does
transparency
and
iteration.
In
the
same
way,
we
did
when
we
were
a
private
company,
but
the
contrast
with
the
rest
with
our
comparables
is
going
to
be
even
greater.
B
B
B
I
spoke
to
a
very
senior
manager
at
gitlab
and
the
person
said
yeah.
We
we
increased
the
scope
of
that
we're
more
ambitious
making.
It
seem
like
a
good
thing:
no
you're,
not
more
ambitious,
you're
gonna
ship
that
slower
and
you
bit
off
more
than
you
can
chew.
So
we
have
to
stay
vigilant.
We
have
to
not
accept
all
these
patterns
that
people
brought
from
their
previous
companies.
A
Yeah
in
the
faq
of
working
here
there's
a
line
that
essentially
says
you
have
to
give
yourself
permission
to
drop
any
baggage,
that's
coming
from
a
place
that
is
different
or
conflicts
with
the
values
and
reinforcing
that
is
going
to
be
more
important
than
ever
off
the
top
of
your
head.
Is
there
anything
that
you
think
we
should
do
between
comms
and
lnd
that
we
aren't
already
doing
in
anticipation
of
that.
B
I
can't
think
of
anything
it's
going
to
heat
up
as
we
as
we
go
through
the
prep
of
becoming
a
public
company.
I
think
we
should.
I
think
we
should
keep
an
eye
on
that
process,
especially
when
the
bankers
and
lawyers
get
more
involved,
who,
who
rightfully,
will
try
the
structures
like
the
companies
before,
because
that's
mitigating
risk
on
their
part.
A
B
B
B
So
that's
that's
important,
and
because
of
our
transparency,
we
we
punch
above
our
weight,
not
sure
that's
violent.
I
think
it's
meant
as
punching
as
in
sports,
and
you
might
call
boxing
a
violent
sport.
The
thing
is:
look
look
at
what
we
ended
up
the
the
fortune
list
for
companies
where
people
would
most
like
to
work
and
we're
number
two
behind
spacex
and
above
stripe
and
airbnb.
B
A
Agreed
last
major
point
before
fyi
is
advocating
for
remote,
so
for
those
watching
we
launched
how
to
manage
a
remote
team
in
partnership
with
coursera.
Last
week.
It's
a
completely
free
course.
11
hours
of
content
spread
out
over
five
weeks.
However,
I
did
get
a
few
tweets
that
much
like
stranger
things:
people
just
binged
it
and
did
it
in
a
weekend,
which
is
pretty
amazing
when
you're
developing
a
course
that
someone
would
want
to
binge
like
who
binges
school
work.
A
That's
pretty
great
we're
averaging
four
to
five
hundred
signups
a
day
over
sixty
thousand
views
of
the
course
as
of
yesterday,
which
is
phenomenal.
I
think
this
is.
This
was
a
first
for
us
using
a
partner
platform
with
a
huge
audience
to
kind
of
leverage
what
we
were
doing.
In
essence,
we
took
the
remote
content
that
had
been
developed
by
myself
and
others
at
get
lab
and
repackaged
it
and
curriculum
curriculum-ized
it
and
added
a
lot
of
video
with
a
diverse
cast
to
present
it
in
a
different
medium.
A
So,
instead
of
sending
people
40
links,
here's
how
to
do
everything,
it's
a
bit
more
digestible,
so
there's
been
great
feedback
on
that.
The
thing
I
wanted
to
surface
here
is
that
I've
had
positive
resonance
from
people
still
in
university
as
well
as
30-year
executives,
which
I
find
pretty
incredible.
I
feel
like
get
lab
on
the
whole
is
fairly
advanced.
I
have
to
continually
scale
back
if
I'm
coming
in
at
a
phd
level.
Sometimes
you
have
to
start
a
bit
back,
but
I've
been
heartened
by
its
usefulness
to
a
broad
spectrum.
A
A
broad
spectrum
of
folks,
no
matter
whether
they're,
not
in
the
workforce
yet
or
they've,
been
in
there
for
30
years.
The
question
I
had
here
from
people
that
have
taken
this
course
and
in
general,
when
I'm
beginning
to
explain
how
we
do
asynchronous
workflows,
I
keep
coming
back
to
we
use,
get
lab
at
get
lab
and
what
I
see
happening
for
people
on
the
other
side
of
this
is
if
they
are
used
to
a
hodgepodge
of
email,
zoom
and
carrier
pigeon,
something
of
that
nature.
They're
missing
the
component,
the
heartbeat.
A
So
what
do
you
recommend?
Do
I
just
tell
every
company
to
use
get
lab,
even
if
they're,
not
in
engineering
or
is
there
any
other
possible
way
to
make
this
work,
because
I'm
envisioning,
if
we
removed
gitlab
the
product
from
what
we
do,
I
think
it
would
be.
Mass
chaos
is
what
I'm
trying
to
say.
Yeah.
B
I've
never
seen
a
company-wide
knowledge-based
work
and
I
think,
that's
attributable
by
all
the
other
tools
not
being
up
to
par
there.
We
have
a
huge
section
about
why
a
wiki
doesn't
work.
Wiki
doesn't
let
someone
make
a
suggestion
to
change
reorganize,
multiple
pages
just
by
that
it's
going
to
devolve
into
chaos
over
time.
B
So
I
think
where
genuinely
we
feel
like
gitlab
can
make
that
difference
and
does
make
a
difference.
We
can
do
it.
We
shouldn't
do
like
remote
and
use
gitlab
and
it
only
works
with
gitlab
if
it's
not
genuine,
but
where
you
feel
it's
genuine,
I
think
it's
perfectly
reasonable
and
where
gitlab
is
missing,
features
to
make
it
user
friendly.
We
have
the
static
site,
editor
team.
You
have
all
kinds
of
pms.
I
think
you
have
a
big
voice,
so
we
should
make
it
a
lot
more
user
friendly
over
time.
A
B
B
I
think
there's
such
an
opportunity
of
how
we
use
google
docs,
how
we
use
google
docs
to
brainstorm
to
whiteboard
how
I
use
google
docs
in
my
one-on-ones.
I
think
it's
in
a
very
underexplored
aspect
of
how
we
do
remote.
I
think
it's
very
hard
for
people
to
wrap
their
heads
around
it,
and
especially
my
one-on-ones.
I've
heard
that
many
many
times,
so
that's
something
I
think
we
could
do
a
better
job
of
of
getting
video
material
out
there
and
and
templates.